Pluralist Myth and Nationalist Realities: The Dynastic Myth of the Habsburg Monarchy—a Futile Exercise in the Creation of Identity?

Abstract

What is a myth? This question cannot be easily answered; the notions and concepts used in various scientific disciplines are too divergent and, as with many other terms, they possess different meanings in different societies. For the purpose of this article, a definition by Philip Manger is useful. According to this author, a myth is “a form of poetic truth, the sifting out of an essence, a hypothetical, metahistorical core that contained an intrinsic meaning,” a meaning that joins the past to the present and thus establishes another, perhaps higher, form of reality. This holds true for all kinds of myths, but especially for the “political” myth that will be dealt with in this paper.